I'm back! And I hope it stays that way :)

Oh my goodness, I can't believe how long it's been since I've last posted. I have been so busy settling into my new place. On top of that we've been a little short handed at work. Oh also, I have a new baby in the house! It's a boy!!

We've had Dante for almost two months now and he is just precious. Raising him to grow up to be a good boy has taken up all of my free time, and all his teething (he likes to use my hand for this) has made my nails/cuticles go to shit. But I love him anyway. Now that he is starting to calm down a little and is becoming a little less dependent on me I can start getting back into my nail polish! I plan on making some more bottles as well as posting more pictures of my nail art. Until then, I hope you find my baby as cute as I do!

Slight Delay in Finishing the Untried Polish Challenge

Hey all! I know I missed yesterday's challenge entry (in season) but I probably won't be back at it until early or midweek next week. I just got handed the keys to my new place so I have tons of moving to do. I will also be trading painting nails for painting walls (I did look to my collection for inspiration though!) As soon as I am not so busy I'll try and crank them out to finish on time. :)

Introducing "Glittering Grapefruit" and "Topical Waters"

Today I have two new handmade polishes I'd like to share with you. My good friend Masha did these swatches for me. She will post a review of them soon on her blog. I was inspired by summer for these shades. Let's get to it!

Glittering Grapefruit

 Tropical Waters

Didn't she do a lovely job swatching these? I have three bottles of each for sale on my etsy shop. I do want to get more of these made, depending on whether they sell or not, so if you're interested in these get them fast! I have used up all my empty bottles and pigment. I guess it's time for me to go shopping. I will not review these since I am the maker, but check back with Masha's blog in the near future for a full review. I really had fun making them and I hope that you guys enjoy!

Untried Challenge: Ugliest

Hello everyone! I hope you all are having a great Friday so far. Today I am supposed to share my ugliest untried with you, which is hard for me because I don't tend to buy polishes I consider ugly, nor has anyone given me one. I decided to go with China Glaze's Fast Track, which I believe is from the Hunger Games collection. It's not necessarily an ugly polish but of all the ones I own it is my least favorite. Here it is, with three coats of polish and one coat of Seche:

In direct sunlight

I bought this because I really liked the gold shimmer in it, but mixed with this sort of tan color it looks more like someone may have puked the shimmer up, which is not a good look. It's not my favorite formula either; it's between sheer and opaque and when it is opaque it still looks like it needs another coat. It's definitely not the worst polish out there but I feel meh about it. What do you think: yay or nay? What's your ugliest polish you have the displeasure of owning? Thanks for reading!

Check out these other bloggers complete the challenge as well!

Amy at Fancy Side

Blueberry Pie at Blueberry Pie
Gnarly Nails at Gnarly Nails

Jonochi at Just Add Polish

Lizajane at Organic Neglect

Masha at Lost in Lacquer

Raine at Lacquer Lily
Sam at Polished Art
Uni at Acetone Files

Comparison of Various Green Holo Polishes

Hey everyone! I'm actually doing a post that has nothing to do with a challenge. Yesterday I was going through my polish collection and I noticed I had a lot of green polishes that contained some type of holo goodness, so I thought "I want to show them all off!" I had five of these polishes as of yesterday, and would you believe that I just got another one in the mail today? Let me show you some pictures and then I can rant and rave about them.

Starting with the top picture, going from thumb to pinkie, we have Trustifarian (butter LONDON), Lonesome George (Cirque), Logan (Zoya), St. George (A England), and Tess D'urbervilles (A England). The bottom picture is Princess Sabra (A England) and is the polish I received today. Here they are in indoor lighting:

Sorry about the sad state of my middle finger :(

As you can see, Trustifarian, St. George, and Princess Sabra are the most holo. My favorite of these is St George just because it has such a great formula and I feel like an A England whore at this time haha (I'm up to 9!) For these swatches I used three coats of Trustifarian, Princess Sabra, and Logan (Logan can be a two coater, I just like my polishes very opaque). I used two coats for Lonesome George and Tess (Tess can be done in one coat, but again, I like them opaque as hell). St George is one coat. I never knew I liked green polishes this much, but I must since I have over six (these are just the holos). Which one is your favorite?

BONUS PIC!

My dogs guarding my polish (left hand side near his head). Then he sat on it.

Untried Challenge: Most Expensive

Hey everybody, it looks like I'm on time today with this post! So today I did another easy taping manicure, mostly because I am short on time and I didn't just want to do a swatch. I chose to use butter LONDON's Rosie Lee to create a sort of funky tip. I painted this rosie glitter over a holographic nail polish that I made (which I have a few extra bottles made for future sales) that is in the same general color family. I cut some blue painters tape with those fancy craft scissors. This gave the slight zigzag effect that I hope you can see in the photos (it was sunny for all of 20 minutes today, so I had to make do with what crap lighting I had). Here are a couple of pictures of the nail, with a bonus thumb of just the homemade polish:

I think this angle helps to capture the zigzag effect

Again, this is a really simple way to add some depth to a manicure when you're pressed for time, which I so often am nowadays. I apologize for the sad state of my cuticles. They're slowly healing after I put them through a week of hell. I really love this glitter and I am looking forward to using it again. I don't usually go for pink hues, but when I do I love this shade because it feels like a grown up way to wear pink. Thanks for reading and don't forget to check out these other blogs!

Amy at Fancy Side

Blueberry Pie at Blueberry Pie

Jonochi at Just Add Polish

Lizajane at Organic Neglect

Masha at Lost in Lacquer

Raine at Lacquer Lily
Sam at Polished Art
Uni at Acetone Files

Untried Polish Challenge: Cheapest

Hey guys. Sorry I am late again. It's not the first time and I can't promise it'll be the last. I did a simple swatch of a fairly cheap polish I got at the clothing store New York and Co. The polish is called Mint Leaf and I got it on sale for about $2.30, making it the cheapest of my untried polishes. Here it is:

No flash

With flash

This is pretty much what you'd expect from a mint green. It took me three coats to get it to be completely opaque. I am actually really happy with the color. This is a shade I had been trying to find for a little bit, and I happened upon it by accident. All and all, it was a good polish for the price. That's really all I have to say about this polish. I am really excited to start moving into my new place and get settled so that I have more time to devote to actual nail art. Thanks for reading and be sure to check out these bloggers who are also completing this challenge with me!

Amy at Fancy Side

Blueberry Pie at Blueberry Pie

Jonochi at Just Add Polish

Lizajane at Organic Neglect

Masha at Lost in Lacquer

Raine at Lacquer Lily
Sam at Polished Art
Uni at Acetone Files